Axelrod: Boehner has to ‘take the whip to these guys’

House Speaker John Boehner must maneuver his way through the “civil war” raging in the Republican Party and caucus in order to end the government shutdown, David Axelrod said Friday.

It will be key for Boehner to work to resolve with the members who are willing to compromise with him to end the situation, he added.

“I think at some point [Boehner] has to take the whip to these guys and say, ‘Listen, we have to bring this to an end, and this is how we’re going to do it. I don’t know that the president can do that for him,” the former senior adviser to President Obama said on Morning Joe.

Both parties face dilemmas in the current situation. President Obama’s challenge is giving Republicans a way out without sacrificing the principle of not negotiating “at the point of a gun.” And Republicans “need a pole to slide down” to escape the predicament, he said.

Republicans will probably switch the discussion from the Affordable Health Care Act to a larger discussion about the budget, Axelrod said.

The president late this week canceled a trip to Asia because of the government closure.